Editorial: Leaders put political stain on maps

Mar. 16, 2013

Every 10 years after the census figures are released, new political boundaries are drawn. Dutchess County saw many new homes being built during the past decade, before the recession hit, including those shown here at the Vassar Oaks housing development in the Town of Poughkeepsie. / Spencer Ainsley/Poughkeepsie Journal

Dutchess County and state leaders gave a wanton shellacking to good government by using fatally flawed methods to redraw political lines.

The public deserved far better than this sordid one-two punch. At least there is hope New Yorkers will reject what the state wants to foist on the public and send it back to the drawing board. New Yorkers are expected to get that chance at the polls in 2014.

Legislative district lines are analyzed and usually changed every 10 years after the census numbers are released. Lawmakers know when this is coming; there is plenty of time to prepare and get it right. For years, the Poughkeepsie Journal and many good-government organizations have advocated both the state and county use an independent commission to redraw these lines.

Why? Well, for starters, leaving this job in the hands of the politicians typically leads to lines that further entrench incumbents and the parties in power and does little to foster competitive races. It’s why many of our legislative districts wind up looking more like abstract art than any reasonable political boundary pattern that an objective person would draw.

For good measure, throw in the concern that any legitimate talk of downsizing government (and making it more efficient along the way) also is flippantly ignored by political leaders eager to hold on to power.

New York lawmakers, in fact, had the audacity to add a Senate seat during its redistricting process. Keep in mind it costs about $500,000 to $1 million a year to run one of those offices, depending on a lawmaker’s duties. This move was a startling smack to taxpayers who have made so many sacrifices during the recession and sluggish recovery.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo promised better, much better, but he reneged on that pledge and caved to the Legislature’s whims. State lawmakers have tried to ameliorate the mess by setting into motion a possible change to the state Constitution, under the guise their “fix” will lead to an independent redistricting process in New York after the 2020 census.

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Hardly. Eight of the 10 members of this so-called independent commission would be picked by state legislative leaders. The state Legislature still would have final approval over the maps. And there would be all sorts of mechanisms in place to make it difficult for the commission to approve a plan and, thus, the Legislature would get to sully the process — yet again.

The state must scrap this idea or be forced to do so. Because voters would have to approve any constitutional amendment, they should hold lawmakers to a better standard before giving their blessing.

Process upended locally

Meanwhile, Dutchess County started down a promising road in 2009, when the then-Democratic-controlled Legislature voted to create an independent review of how districts would be redrawn. But following the 2010 elections, the Republican-majority Legislature recklessly decided to squelch the plan.

What’s more, Dutchess County should have used the redistricting process as an opportunity to downsize the Legislature from an unwieldy 25 to a more manageable number, but it refused to do that as well. Fewer seats would lead to better competition in political races and raise the overall quality of candidates, among other benefits.

In this regard, Democratic leaders in Dutchess County shouldn’t be let off the hook either. They showed no compunction to downsize and raised few public objections about the process until the very end. It’s telling that in no instance will a Republican or Democratic incumbent be forced to run against a sitting legislator in the next election cycle as result of these new lines. It also is completely outrageous.

While the majority of legislators are defending their work, the public has raised legitimate questions, such as why Vassar College has been further split among legislative districts. Having an independent commission handle redistricting would have avoided even the appearance of impropriety.

Allowing fair and impartial lines to be drawn is arguably the least-expensive way to level the playing field in politics. But neither the state nor the county was willing to take that righteous route and, at this point, the fight for fairer elections will suffer as a result.